Welcome to Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology! Today is Share:

Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2016, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (6): 1708-1714.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.201606.005

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of irregular bedrock topography on the soil profile pattern of water content in a Karst hillslope.

JIA Jin-tian1,2,3, FU Zhi-yong2,3*, CHEN Hong-song2,3, WANG Ke-lin2,3, ZHOU Wei-Jun1   

  1. 1College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China;
    2Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China;
    3Huanjiang Observation and Research Station for Karst Ecosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huanjiang 547100, Guangxi, China
  • Received:2015-10-30 Published:2016-06-18

Abstract: Based on three manually excavated trenches (projection length of 21 m, width of 1 m) along a typical Karst hillslope, the changing trends for soil-bedrock structure, average water content of soil profile and soil-bedrock interface water content along each individual trench were studied. The effect of irregular bedrock topography on soil moisture distribution was discussed. The results showed that the surface topography was inconsistent with the bedrock topography in the Karst hill-slopes. The bedrock topography was highly irregular with a maximum variation coefficient of 82%. The distribution pattern of soil profile of moisture was significantly affected by the underlying undulant bedrock. The soil water content was related to slope position when the fluctuation was gentle, and displayed a linear increase from upslope to downslope. When the bedrock fluctuation increased, the downslope linear increasing trend for soil water content became unapparent, and the spatial continuity of soil moisture was weakened. The soil moisture was converged in rock dents and cracks. The average water content of soil profile was significantly positively correlated with the soil-bedrock interface water content, while the latter responded more sensitively to the bedrock fluctuation.

Key words: soil profile, soil water content pattern, irregular bedrock topography, soil-bedrock interface, Karst hillslope.